The cost of secondary education has increased significantly in recent years. As a consequence, many students apply for assistance in the form of financial aid and grants. Indeed, a student is likely to call on financial resources from a variety of sources. Determining how much funds are needed and determining the available funding sources are often not readily available in an easy to understand interface. Accordingly, students may be left with little or no plan as to how to fund education.
Additionally, once funding sources are found and evaluated, many available calculators can show a student the expected monthly payment for any borrowed funds. However, many students are devoid of a reference point so as to be able to presently assess the affordability of such future payments.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of electronically forming a customized educational financing plan is provided including the steps of presenting an educational financing planning website to a user, the website providing educational financing planning for a student; electronically obtaining educational institution information from the user, the information identifying an educational institution for which financial planning is desired, the information including an intended course of study; determining educational funding sources for the student including loans; determining a repayment amount for the loans; estimating a future income of the student at least partially based upon the identified intended course of study; comparing the repayment amount for the loans to the estimated future income; and classifying the plan as a specific risk level based upon the result of the comparing step; providing a data stream for displaying the plan and the risk level to the user.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of electronically forming a customized educational financing plan is provided including the steps of: presenting an educational financing planning website to a user, the website providing educational financing planning for a student; electronically obtaining educational institution information from the user, the information identifying a first educational institution for which financial planning is desired, the information identifying an expected year of enrollment at the first institution; determining an expected cost for attending the first institution, the determination of expected cost being at least partially based on the identified first educational institution and the expected year of enrollment; obtaining information regarding the current educational savings, expected future educational savings contributions, and an expected rate of savings appreciation; determining expected educational savings that will be available at the time of enrollment, the determination of expected educational savings being at least partially based on the current educational savings, expected future educational savings contributions, and an expected rate of savings appreciation; providing for graphically displaying the expected educational savings that will be available at the time of enrollment relative to the expected cost for attending the first institution.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of electronically forming a customized educational financing plan is provided including the steps of: presenting an educational financing planning website to a user, the website providing educational financing planning for a student; electronically obtaining first educational institution information from the user, the information identifying a first educational institution for which financial planning is desired, the information identifying an expected year of enrollment at the first institution; determining an expected cost for attending the first institution, the determination of expected cost being at least partially based on the identified first educational institution and the expected year of enrollment; electronically importing grant and loan award information from a financial aid award letter for the first educational institution; electronically obtaining second educational institution information from the user, the information identifying a second educational institution for which financial planning is desired, the information identifying an expected year of enrollment at the second institution; determining an expected cost for attending the second institution, the determination of expected cost being at least partially based on the identified second educational institution and the expected year of enrollment; electronically importing grant and loan award information from a financial aid award letter for the second educational institution; determining the net costs of attending the first and second educational institutions; and providing for the displaying of the costs, award information, and net costs for the first and second educational institutions.
According to another embodiment of the present disclosure, a method of managing loans is provided including: electronically importing a loan portfolio of a user; providing for the display of a plurality of repayment options for the loan portfolio; receiving input indicative of the choosing of one of the repayment options by a user; and automatically implementing the chosen repayment option for the user in response to receiving the input.
Corresponding reference characters indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views. Although the drawings represent embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated in order to better illustrate and explain the present disclosure. The exemplification set out herein illustrates an embodiment of the disclosure, in one form, and such exemplifications are not to be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure in any manner.